SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—Inamed Corp. (IMDC) said the decline in its stock price on Friday was triggered by "misplaced anxiety" on the part of investors after its competitor Mentor Corp. (MNTR) issued a quarterly outlook on Thursday.

Shares of Inamed closed Friday at $28.13, down $4.98 or 15.1%.

Although Inamed and Mentor both make breast implants, Inamed said in a press release Monday that investors shouldn’t assume the companies "share the same growth attributes."

Mentor had said it expects second-quarter earnings and revenue to be flat compared to year-ago figures.

Inamed said Mentor’s management later elaborated that its breast implant product sales for the second quarter grew about 5%.

Inamed said its own breast implant product sales grew by about 11% for the first nine months of the year.

Inamed plans to issue its own outlook for fiscal 2000 and the next three years later this week.

Inamed said its 11% growth in breast-implant sales for the first nine months was essentially the same growth rate for the first six months of the year.

The medical device company said it also has seen an increase in the average selling price of its breast-implant products this year.

Shares of Inamed were recently trading at $31.25, up $3.13 or 11.1% on Nasdaq volume of 40,600 shares. Average daily volume is 163,175 shares.

Emily Park; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5400

Briefing Book for: IMDC | MNTR